


the sin that shapes your voice

by tocourtdisaster



Series: 15 Pairings [6]
Category: Bones
Genre: Community: 15pairings, F/M, Rare Pairing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-11
Updated: 2009-12-11
Packaged: 2017-10-04 08:30:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tocourtdisaster/pseuds/tocourtdisaster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>It's only after Seeley jumps in to salvage her reputation that Tessa remembers Parker, on Seeley's other side, and realizes why the other woman was looking at her as if she was the lowest of whores and not an accomplished lawyer about to make partner.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	the sin that shapes your voice

**Author's Note:**

> Title from "The Velorium Camper I: Faint of Hearts" by Coheed and Cambria.
> 
> For the prompt: devil's advocate.
> 
> Holy crap, I wrote Booth/Tessa! From Tessa's point of view! I've no idea where this came from, so please don't ask. I'd like to chalk it up to temporary insanity.

The first time she's mistaken for Seeley's wife, she's caught completely off-guard and manages to stutter out, "But I'm not," before she stops herself, utterly confused by the judgmental look on the sales clerk's face. It's only after Seeley jumps in to salvage her reputation that Tessa remembers Parker, on Seeley's other side, and realizes why the other woman was looking at her as if she was the lowest of whores and not an accomplished lawyer about to make partner.

"Would it be a crime for us to have a child Parker's age and to be together but not married?" she asks Seeley later in the car, after Parker's been dropped off at his mother's, the setting sun reflecting off the other cars and blinding her. She wishes she hadn't forgotten her sunglasses in her own car that morning.

"I think it just throws people," he says, "what with Parker being so young. And really, if you think about it, you look enough alike that you _could_ be his mother."

"You mean I look like Rebecca." The accusation flies out of her mouth without checking with her brain first and she's left trying to hide her cringe and listening to the tires running over pavement because Seeley's certainly not saying anything.

"I'm not with you because you look like Rebecca," he eventually says, slowing to a stop at a red light not far from her apartment. "I hope you don't think I am."

"And what if I do?" she asks, even though she's not sure if she thinks any such thing. But she does have to wonder. She's met Rebecca several times and she knows she bears, at the very least, a superficial resemblance to the other woman, though Tessa's taller and not quite as curvy as Rebecca.

"I'm not with you because you remind me of my ex," Seeley insists, though Tessa notices that his reasons for being with her are conspicuous in their absence. She decides to let it go, for now at least, but she kisses Seeley goodnight at her front door and doesn't invite him in like she'd originally planned.

The second time Tessa is mistaken for Seeley's wife, she handles things much more smoothly. Mainly, she just caters to the waitress's misconception and doesn't bother to correct the girl, though she refuses to play up to it.

"Why didn't you tell her we're not married?" he asks her once the girl's scuttled off to get their drinks. There are a handful of brochures for tropical vacation locations on the table between them; she picks one up to give herself something to do with her hands while she thinks of what to say.

His foot nudges her ankle gently after a while, silently prompting her to answer. "Maybe I liked how it sounded," she says, though that's not really truthful. Thinking of herself as _someone's wife_ makes her nervous. Thinking of herself as _Seeley's wife_ makes her panic. But she can't tell him that because the last thing she wants is to hurt Seeley, so she's stuck playing this game of pretending to be more invested in this relationship than she really is.

Seeley's looking decided green around the gills and Tessa almost feels _proud_ that she's the one who made the great Seeley Booth look that way. And _that_ makes her uncomfortable because she shouldn't be proud of putting that sick look on the face of someone she loves.

Should she?

She laughs and it sounds slightly shrill to her own ears and she hopes Seeley won't notice. "I was joking," she tells him, the smile that's stretching across her face feeling more and more odd the longer she holds it. "Let's just forget it and figure out where we're going on vacation, all right?"

Tessa is not mistaken for Seeley's wife a third time.

**

**end**


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